DESIGNER PROFILE: Gary Kernick
Gary Kernick
BY TINA HENRICKSEN,
APLD SACRAMENTO DISTRICT
Once you see the colorful and creative landscapes Gary Kernick has designed, you’ll understand why he is known as a landscape artist with a flair for the dramatic. In all of his landscapes, he wants to create spaces that move people off of the couch and into the garden.
Gary started out with a career in theater before realizing his true calling lay in design, and soon after started his landscape design business. “I started Change of Seasons 23 years ago,” says Gary, who is also a landscape contractor. “Landscape design allows me to combine my love of nature with the theatrical.”
Every project is unique to Gary, and he enjoys including a wow factor or two in all of his gardens. “I love being able to design a midcentury modern garden and then a classic English Tudor garden, and then on to something new,” he says, while pointing out that it all boils down to the details. “An unexpected combination of hardscape materials, unique water feature or dramatic plant juxtaposition can allow the garden to transcend the ordinary.”
Asked what trends he sees in client requests, Gary notes “I am getting more and more interest in modern-style gardens. In particular, my younger first-time home buyers are drawn to the contemporary aesthetic.” With Gary’s penchant for new and innovative interpretations of residential design concepts, his clients have definitely found a good match.
Birch branch fence; photo: Gary Kernick
Mosaic fire pit and spiral patio; photo: Gary Kernick
Kelly Kilpatrick Design
Featured in Pacific Horticulture
Kelly Kilpatrick designed this waterwise California-native garden in Tiburon. Photo: Kelly Kilpatrick
Pacific Horticulture magazine featured APLD designers throughout 2017 in their “Planting the New California Garden” series. The fall issue highlighted a Kelly Kilpatrick garden in Tiburon on a sunny slope facing San Francisco. The sense of lushness and abundance of blooms in this garden are a testament to waterwise plant choices and the homeowners giving the plants “just enough water to survive.”
Telling Your Garden Stories
Pacific Horticulture is looking for stories that explore the full breadth and experience of gardening on the West Coast and in related growing regions. As designers, APLD-CA members are on the creative forefront. Your work creates beauty and produces productive and sustainable infrastructure in our landscapes.
Beautiful gardens are powerful; they enhance life, strengthen communities and support the environment. Now is a teachable moment. Throughout 2018 and beyond we will be exploring small space gardens, purpose-driven design (wildlife support, accessibility, social activism, trialing plants, beautiful sustainability), and especially in light of recent events, rebuilding and recovery after fire.
Our publication is valued for its beautiful photos, curious perspective, and prevailing respect for the environment. If you’ve got a story or garden photos you’d love to see in print and online, we’d love to hear about it. For submission guidelines and details please visit pachort.org/submissions. Email proposals to TheEditor@pacifichorticulture.org.
Pacific Horticulture is a voice for gardeners.
Bay Area Member Susan Morrison
Writes Another Inspiring Book
Author Susan Morrison
Photo: Nicholas Bowerman
Susan's new book from Timber Press
Photo: Lisa Romerian
APLD Bay Area member Susan Morrison has written her second book, The Less Is More Garden: Big Ideas for Designing Your Small Yard, released in January by Timber Press. The book features designs by APLD members Jeannie Fitch, Tina Henricksen, Kelly Kilpatrick, Linda Middleton, Nina Mullen, Patricia St. John and Roxy Wolosenko, with photographs Jude Parkinson-Morgan.
The Less Is More Garden celebrates the many advantages of designing small spaces and how to make the most of them—creating enjoyable gardens that truly reflect the aesthetics and lifestyle of the homeowner. The book is loaded with style-savvy tips, plants that promise seasonal interest, and hardscape ideas for small gardens. Case studies offer plenty of inspiring fodder . . . both for homeowners and for designers.
Jeannie Fitch Wins CLCA Award
The California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA) named APLD Bay Area member Jeannie Fitch and her firm Garden Nest Residential Landscape Design first-place winner of the 2017 State Trophy Award for Waterwise Garden (Xeriscape). Jeannie’s Orinda-based design-build firm used a romantic combination of Mediterranean-climate plantings together with permeable hardscape materials and a dry creek bed in the sunny Fremont garden. Congratulations, Jeannie!
Photos: Jude Parkinson-Morgan